The only thing I remember is the bright lights as they came towards me. It was after 10 on a wet, good-for-nothing night in the winter of 1989, and I was driving home from my part-time job in Auckland's St Heliers when I rounded a curve in the road, saw the lights right in front me and...
When I regained consciousness I couldn't see for the blood in my eyes. Or quite think where I was. But a voice I didn't know was talking to me. Who should they call, it asked? Could I give them a number? I managed my girlfriend's and my parents' and...
When I came to again, I was in an ambulance, its siren blaring my bad news. I still could not see; there was pain; I was panicking. "What's happening," I asked the paramedics, "what's happening?" I had been in a car accident. I was on my way to Auckland Hospital. I would be okay.
But I was not okay, and it had been no accident. I had been hit head-on by a drunk driver. He had crossed the centre line. I'd been keeping my speed down in the rain; he had not. My car was a write-off, and so, for many months after, was my face.
Glass had ripped open the flesh on my cheek and forehead, leaving slivers embedded around my right eye. I had been lucky not to lose it, the plastic surgeon told me, but the injuries left me with angry, red scars around my right eye and nose and surgical metal in my face.
So I was not okay, though in the most important way, I was. Although I was among the nearly 16,000 people injured and maimed on our roads in 1989, I had not joined the dead. And there were many. By the time the year was done, 755 people had been killed on the roads - two people every day-making it one of the worst years in our history. In 1989, we lost around 22 people out everyone 100,000 on our roads, making them little better than killing fields.
Dishearteningly, 35 years after my accident they largely still are, with around seven out of every 100,000 dying on the roads.
Bu hikaye New Zealand Listener dergisinin March 30 - April 5, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye New Zealand Listener dergisinin March 30 - April 5, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
The rest is history
Rest - both sleep and non-sleep - is essential to help our overstressed bodies and minds repair themselves. But many of us remain in a constant state of 'fight, flight or freeze'.
Right and power
Israel is profiting financially and extending its global technological influence in response to the October 7 massacre, says investigative journalist Antony Loewenstein.
Dolphins be damned
Is SailGP's future in this country really under threat because of an at-risk marine mammal?
Orwellian irony
Our thinking about one of the 20th century's best-known writers is being challenged by the 'smelly little truths' Anna Funder uncovered about George Orwell's marriage.
The alchemist
Talent and a little magic have taken state-house kid Moses Mackay to the heights of Italian opera. He's coming back to sprinkle some of his gold dust around.
Good Lord, he was scandalous
Lord Byron still fascinates 200 years after his death, but more for his bohemian lifestyle than his poetry.
Stars in their eyes
Debut novel a heady mix of grief, astronomy and love.
Dark matter
Ngaio Marsh-style whodunnit set among academia attached to the Mt John Observatory.
Mirren's mirror on Meir
Dame Helen talks about playing Golda Meir, Israel's iron lady, during a pivotal chapter in the controversial politician's long career.
Game, set and match
Love, sex and great tennis take centre court in this highly charged drama.